HEATHER UNWIN … “We are very careful not to put a financial burden on the wineries because a lot of them are small or they’re young. So, we don’t say to them, ‘boy, you have to bring in X number of bidders and you have to fly them in and you have to put them up and you have to make them dinner.’ So, our bidders choose to come here for this event and then we entertain them while they’re here. And we entertain them, if you like en semis, we entertain them as a collective. So, all the wineries come, they all hang out with all the bidders and we all kind of play together for the two days that they are here.”

Unwin says Walla Walla’s wine rep has a solid base for growth …

HEATHER UNWIN … “You have this marvelous legacy. You know, there’s Rick Smalls and Norm McKibbon and the Figgins’s and these people that have set the bar so high for the legacy for how they’ve developed this place. But, you’ve got all of this young wine-making talent that, because of the college and because of the attraction to the fact that you’ve got these amazing vineyards and wine-makers up here, there’s a really bunch of incredibly talented young winemakers, young wineries …”

The top three lots sold were from Leonetti Cellars, Doubleback, and Abeja for $65, $48, and $44 hundred respectively.